In commercial packing houses, animal carcasses are bled, eviscerated, skinned and moved to a cooler for chilling. Thereafter, the carcasses are conveyed to the cutting floor where the carcasses are cut into primal cuts. For example, each hog carcass side is typically cut into wholesale or primal cuts, including the hind foot, front foot, ham, shoulder, loin, spare ribs, and belly. The cutting operation is labor intensive and the cuts made by the butchers are not consistently accurate to produce the most effective yield. Since hog carcasses vary in size and build, and because primal cuts are not defined by precise symmetry, it has been difficult to develop an automated butchering system.